2011 NHL Playoffs – Round 2 Preview – Vancouver vs Nashville

Round two gets under way on Thursday night with Game 1 between Vancouver and Nashville. I thought I’d throw up a quick preview of this 2nd Round series. They split the 4-game season series with each team winning a game on the road and a game at home.This is good match-up. Both teams have good to great goaltending in Pekka Rinne and Roberto Luongo. Vancouver is a powerhouse offensive team that excels in special teams while Nashville is more of a defensive team that has a decent power play and a good penalty kill. Vancouver has the high profile guys like Kesler and the Sedins with two good scoring lines. Nashville doesn’t have that big time scorer and have gotten their scoring from a variety of guys like Kostitsyn, Erat, Hornqvist, Wilson, Weber and Suter. Mike Fisher and Jordin Tootoo were big in the first round.Both teams conquered some demons in the first round. Nashville won a playoff series for the first time in franchise history after losing their five previous playoff appearances. Vancouver finally beat the Chicago Blackhawks after losing to them in the second round for two consecutive seasons. Both teams had some struggles in the first round they had to overcome as well. Nashville had trouble with the penalty kill and Pekka Rinne didn’t play that well in round one giving up 19 goals in the 6 game series against Anaheim (3.29 GAA and .876 save percentage) although 8 of those were power play goals! Vancouver struggled after taking a 3-0 series lead losing 7-2 in game 4 and 5-0 in game 5 with Luongo getting pulled in both of those games. They played better in games 6 and 7 but you have to wonder if Chicago exposed them a little for round 2.

For Nashville to win they need to stay out of the penalty box like they have all season (2nd fewest PIMs), get a huge series out of  Pekka Rinne and continue to get scoring from their whole team. Jordin Tootoo will be a player to watch as he’s playing some great hockey since missing a couple months during voluntary drug rehab. He looks like a different player now shown by his 5 points (1 G, 4 A) in round one. Keep an eye on Steve Sullivan as well.

For Vancouver to win they need to get more offense out of the Sedin twins and Ryan Kesler, get a solid series from Luongo and get some scoring from some of their role players. Kesler hasn’t had very much success against Nashville for his entire career. The Sedins have been solid and Luongo’s been solid as well. The Canucks are the better team with more talent and speed. They just have to show up and prove it. Someone like Chris Higgins, Mason Raymond or Mikael Samuelsson needs to play a big part in this series.

Tale of the Tape on the Left-Handed Stick:
Goaltending – pretty even but I give a slight edge to Nashville
Defense – Vancouver
Offense – Vancouver
Power Play – Vancouver
Penalty Kill – this is pretty even but I’ll give the edge to Vancouver
Coaching – Vancouver mainly because Vigneault has more talent to work with

That makes it look pretty stacked for Vancouver but playoffs aren’t played on my laptop computer, or this document or paper*. They are played on ice! “Woody Wood” Pekka Rinne will steal a couple games and make it a series and might make Vancouver and Luongo nervous! I still think Vancouver will come out victorious in the end!

Vancouver in 7!

*They are played on paint though. Ice isn’t white and doesn’t have logos and lines already in it!!! Come on! Wouldn’t it be cool if it was clear except for the logos and the lines? How would that look? You would probably just see the cement but hey, it might still be cool! Maybe you could do it on a lake or something! Oooooh! Sorry, It appears I ranted a little there!

Pekka Rinne’s stats against Vancouver:
Career: 8 GP, 4 W, 4 L, 1.89 GAA, .941 SV%, 1 SO
in NSH: 5 GP, 2 W, 3 L, 2.03 GAA, .938 SV%, 0 SO
in VAN: 3 GP, 2 W, 1 L, 1.68 GAA, .945 SV%, 1 SO
2010-2011: 4 GP, 2 W, 2 L, 1.26 GAA, .962 SV%, 1 SO
in NSH: 2 GP, 1 W, 1 L, 1.52 GAA, .955 SV%, 0 SO
in VAN: 2 GP, 1 W, 1 L, 1.01 GAA, .969 SV%, 1 SO

Roberto Luongo’s stats against Nashville:
Career: 24 GP, 10 W, 10 L, 3 T, 2.19 GAA, .924 SV%, 2 SO
in VAN: 14 GP, 6 W, 7 L, 1 T, 2.15 GAA, .916 SV%, 2 SO
in NSH: 10 GP, 4 W, 3 L, 2 T, 2.24 GAA, .932 SV%, 0 SO
2010-2011: 4 GP, 2 W, 2 L, 1.77 GAA, .929 SV%, 0 SO
in VAN: 2 GP, 1 W, 1 L, 1.53 GAA, .945 SV%, SO
in NSH: 2 GP, 1 W, 1 L, 2.02 GAA, .907 SV%,  0 SO

What’s your opinion on this series? Quick series for Vancouver? Long series that goes the distance? Canucks? Preds?

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Robb Dahlen
BRING THE CLUTTER!